West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced 10 per cent hike in dearness allowance of state government employees from next month.

“We give DA to our employees every January. Though we do not have much fund because of the Centre’s deductions, we pay DA to our employees… Sometimes we give it at the rate of seven or eight per cent… like last time this time too we will hike DA by 10 per cent,” she said.

This hike in dearness allowance will cost the state exchequer an additional Rs 3,000 crore.

With this announcement, the difference between DA given by the Centre and the state to its employees came down to around 46 per cent.